The Business: Toy Galaxy Shows How The Sausage Is Made

I'd mentioned this channel when they did their comprehensive video on Robotech, but today we're talking Voltron.

Put Toy Galaxy into your regular feed; they are very good not only on talking about toys of yesteryear but--and this is where it matters to indie creators now--how the sausage got made.

Why? Because, especially in Japan, it hasn't changed that much. Even today, entertainment aimed at children remains tied to the need to push related merchandise; what that merchandise is has changed, but the business model has not, because--especially outside of Japan, where manga sales matter significantly--this is where the real money is in the business.

For those of us looking to get out into the mainstream, this is something to account for and monitor; reference my recent posts about MoShow Toys and their moves into original Intellectual Property as one such development. This includes, for us, making film and TV productions happen.

Look at what happened to make Voltron. They tried to capitalize on an extant market in the United States for super robots. They grabbed three shows that failed in Japan, and then they unsuccessfully blended the three together--something that Harmony Gold would know to avoid--to make Voltron. It's not a surprise how they failed; there was no attempt to communicate with the audience that the Go Lion team would rotate off-stage in favor of Dairugger XV so it came as a shock. (Compare to HG, where Southern Cross got set up before they finished the Macross arc when making Robotech and then explicitly set off as a generation later.)

That's right, they screwed up basic production so bad that they sabotaged their own project. The audience, unaware of the shift, didn't cotton to it and Nielsen ratings proved it- followed by merch sales. (Which is sad; the DRXV toys--now under "Soul of Chogukin"--are all right; so is Go Lion.)

As for Albegas, the toys are all that got over; I had the blue robot as a kid, and by itself it was a solid toy made of metal with some plastic parts. The first two episodes, subtitled into English, are online legally if you want to see them. It's not hard to see why it did not do well in Japan; it was mediocre in a time of Super Robot saturation, so it has nothing going for it.

In all three cases, the Voltron adaptation was what made them actually popular worldwide. We wouldn't even be talking about Albegas today if not for its aborted inclusion in this adaptation, and we'd never see the original Go Lion or Dairuggar XV outside of aging fansubs. Much like how Super-Dimension Calvary Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA were saved by Robotech, so it is here.

Go ahead, watch the originals. Sure, the adaptation sanitized things for the target audience. Yes, there is some Flanderization. However, once you see what was originally aired in Japan and you account for the way the United States was in the early 1980s, you'll admit--however reluctantly--that the changes made were for the better and turned what were a trio of mediocre super robot shows into things that actually get remembered and enjoys premium toys sales. That I cannot say of other adaptations, such as what Gatchaman suffered.

And if you're not into anime/manga, Toy Galaxy has plenty of Western properties covered--original Battlestar Galactica, for example--given the same treatment. The Tron and Last Starfighter videos are just as worthwhile as this one on Voltron.